Windows Setup Here
It is
best to use computers with Windows XP or newer when using
any Asynchronous USB Device. Vista or Windows “7” would be
a best choice for any Asynchronous USB DAC.
When you plug in any of the USB DAC’s it will say that you
are installing new hardware. It will ask you if you want to
go to the internet for drivers or search locally. Search
locally as all the available drivers for any of these DAC’s
should be already installed in your operating system.
Start->Control
Panels->Sound and Audio Devices (or Multimedia) and select as
your audio output either {Brick, Cosecant or Crimson) or
USB Composite Audio Device.
You may want to set the Sounds panel to no theme so that
computer sounds will not go through your stereo system. If
you are using a 24 bit DAC you can also set the default
output sampling rate. Select the Cosecant or your dac and
then do Configure and the Speaker Properties window will
come up. Under Enhancements make sure all the enhancements
are disabled. You can then goto the Advanced pane and
select your output sampling rate for the system.
I suggest that if you are using Windows Media Player or
iTunes on a PC that you upgrade to Vista. In XP and earlier
operating systems (OS) the problem with these and other
applications is the KMIXER. This part of the OS will alter
the bits of songs and it will not sound as good.
If you are going to use iTunes on the PC then goto
the Macintosh Setup page for information on
that.
There are many good PC software choices. Many like
Foobar, Winamp EAC, and we especially like
J River Media
Center.
We feel the best all around program is J River so we will
concentrate on getting that setup here.
We have had better and easier results with J River when used with Vista and Direct Sound. But if you are using XP (SP2 or SP3 best) then you will have to bypass the KMIXER by use of an ASIO driver:
ASIO4ALL this free driver is easy to use and configure.
ASIO2KS this free driver is also very easy to use
ASIO USB Audio is 49 Euro’s and is suppose to be very good, but setup is a little weak.
Some people think that better than ASIO is to un-map the USB DAC device from the KMIXER. This is done as follows:
Go Control Panel => Sounds and Audio Device => Select Hardware Tab => Select USB Audio Device.
Click Properties Button => Select Properties Tab => Click the “+” to the left of [+] Audio Devices that will pop down USB Audio Devices.
Select USB Audio Devices and click Properties.
Check both Use audio features of this device and Do not map through this device.
==> [ Apply ] <==
That will map through the KMIXER without using ASIO.
J River Media Center Setup Here
Tools->Options->Encoding:
Select as the Encoder Windows Media and the Settings as
Lossless Mode as displayed above.
Tools->Options->CD
& DVD:
To assure an error free rip of each track make sure you set
the
Copy Mode to Secure. This is very important or the
tracks will be flawed and not sound very good. You can also
set the speed to Max or something lower to make sure the
tracks are correctly ripped.
Tools->Options->Playback:
If you
are using
Vista Direct Sound is best option and the least
amount of headaches. If you are using XP or ealier
operating system then ASIO is your best bet.
Here we show the settings for ASIO4ALL with medium
buffering. In the ASIO4ALL
Off-Line Settings program you can fool with these
options until you get the best sound.
Hardware Buffering on some machines does not work. Also
make sure you have the Resample setting correctly set.
Back too the setup of Media Center Tools->Options->Playback:
In J River they offer allot of DSP stuff which is not good
for high end sound. Make sure the eq, effects, volume
leveling and Temp & Pitch settings are off. You can set
the output prefernces here in this window.
Now you are ready to play and rip music. You can glance
over the literature for setting up remotes and hand helds.
Remote
Controls
There
are many suggested remotes and handheld for J River and
it’s best too look over the suggestions they have in their
setup guide.
If you want more robust solution for
iTunes I
suggest getting a Bluetooth Enabled Palm Pilot and
the Salling Software
Clicker. This gives you complete
control to do just about anything with your computer.
Keyspan also offers the TuneView remote that enables full
control of your iTunes. With iTunes 7.7 and later both
the iPhone and the iTouch remote access were
introduced by Apple.
You can also control your PC via another computer using
VNC. There are many ways to do this and it can be a bit
complicated. A simple search of the internet or contact us
and we can help you set this up.